Operation Napoleon
Operation Napoleon (ISBN 1846552850) is an adventure-thriller novel written by Arnaldur Indridason. The novel is set in Iceland and involves an international conspiracy dating to the closing day of World War II. Synopsis In 1945 a German bomber crashes on the Icelandic Vatnajokull glacier. Puzzlingly, there are both German and American officers on board. In 1999 the US Army is secretively trying to remove an aeroplane from the Vatnajokull glacier. But when young Icelander, Kristín, becomes involved, her pursuit to discover the truth puts her in great danger as she searches for the key to the riddle of Operation Napoleon and the fate of her missing brother. Plot In Washington D.C., General Vytautas Carr oversees a series of satellite images of a mysterious artifact buried in the ice and snow in Iceland. He deploys a subordinate, Ratoff, along with a Delta Force team to Iceland to investigate the findings. Meanwhile, an Icelandic woman named Kristín leaves her government office for the night after dealing with a hostile businessman. Her younger brother, Elías, a member of a rescue team, calls her and warns Kristín that he and his friend, Johann, have seen armed men uncovering a buried plane on the glacier they were travelling, but he is abruptly cut off. Ratoff, having seized Elías and Johann, orders them killed and dumped in a crevice to protect the secrecy of the mission and traces the call to Kristín after interrogating them. He dispatches two Delta operators, Ripley and Bateman, to murder Kristín and make it appear to be a suicide. As the men force her to write a fake suicide note, the businessman who had verbally accosted Kristín earlier arrives at her apartment to confront her again but is shot by Ripley and Batemen, giving Kristín time to escape. Kristín arrives at the residence of her American ex-boyfriend, Steve, and confides in him what has happened. They are forced to flee when Ripley and Bateman arrive at his address. He agrees to help her when a coworker, Monica, confirms that the American military has taken over management of much of the embassy. Kristín and Steve search through the American embassy record to find information about a plane which may have crashed on the glacier. With the help of Arnold, a librarian friend of Steve's they manage to find the name of an pilot living in Iceland who flew espionage-related missions around the time. Meanwhile, General Carr has arrived in Iceland and visits his old friend, Robert Miller, who indicates that he wants custody of one of the bodies if the wreck is discovered. The pilot, Michael Thomson, confirms that on multiple occasions during the Cold War the American government has searched for a downed plane on the glacier. He tells Kristín and Steve that an American officer brainstormed the idea to have Neil Armstrong and other astronauts lead one of the searches under the guise of practicing maneuvers on terrain similar to the moon in order to hide the expedition from the Icelandic public. Thomson informs them that two local brothers had led expeditions across the glacier to those interested in searching for the plane. He recommends they speak to the widow of his former commanding officer who flew surveillance flights over the glacier and gives them directions to her house. Meanwhile, Ripley and Bateman murder Arnold while two police detectives find a body in Kristin's apartment and try to figure out what has happened. Kristín and Steve question the widow who informs them that her husband had suspected that a Nazi plane had crashed into the glacier. Meanwhile, Ratoff and his crew begin digging out the plane, which is a German Junkers bomber painted in American camouflage colors, and are surprised to find the frozen remains of both American and Nazi German officers aboard the plane, along with two crates of gold. Kristín learns from Júlíus, her brother's rescue team leader, that her brother has been found and is still barely alive. Kristín and Steve meet with Steve's coworker, Monica, at a bar to see what she has discovered but she has led Ripley and Bateman to them as they had threatened her children. Bateman escorts Steve outside but when Ripley attempts to do the same to Kristín she shouts at the other customers that Ripley has insulted them, and he is severely beaten by the locals, giving Kristín time to rescue Steve. She and Steve borrow a Jeep from one of Kristín's ex-boyfriends and barely manage to escape Bateman's gunfire. They drive to the farm of Jón, the surviving brother who tells them that he and his brother used to help an American intelligence officer, Robert Miller, search for the plane, as Miller claimed his brother was the pilot. Jón then shows them a Nazi uniform belonging to a German officer who survived the wreck and reached their farmhouse, only to die shortly thereafter. The papers he had carried have been destroyed by the elements but Kristín is able to read the faded words "Operation Napoleon" on one of them. The detectives arrive at the bar and continue their investigation into Kristín, but are rebuffed by the American military when they contact the embassy for help. Júlíus and his team begin to approach the American camp at the wreckage site in order to expose the covert mission, but are halted by the American soldiers who confiscate their communications equipment and disable their vehicles. The Icelandic government, having been warned by Júlíus that something unusual is going on, confronts the American representatives but are told that a primitive Nazi hydrogen bomb is on board and the Americans are trying to disarm it without raising alarm. Kristín contacts the police and clears her name with the detectives who have been tracking her. Kristín and Steve travel to the glacier and are arrested by American forces. Kristín bluffs to Ratoff that she knows about Operation Napoleon, knowing only the name from the words on the faded document she studied earlier. Ratoff stabs her with an awl when she lies to him about the press knowing about the events on the glacier. Ratoff then shoots Steve and informs Kristín that she could have saved his life by cooperating. After Ratoff leaves, Júlíus sneaks past the guards who have stopped his team and helps Kristín hide in a body bag but is himself subsequently captured. Kristín, having been loaded into the C-17 transport plane along with the wreckage and bodies, is discovered by Robert Miller, who arrived with General Carr in order to identify his brother's body. Kristín remembers Miller's name as the American intelligence officer who was looking for his brother's body. Miller finds his brother's body, then recounts the true nature of Operation Napoleon to Kristín. While the Allies were still considering Operation Unthinkable and were in secret negotiations with the Germans, the German government negotiated the secret escape and subsequent exile of Adolph Hitler, who would only be allowed to bring his dog Blondie with him, to an Argentinian island. The operation's name was in reference to Napoleon who too was banished to live out his life in exile on Elba Island. The plane which crashed in Iceland had carried German negotiators and a small amount of gold to ease negotiations. Miller refuses to elaborate as he has never seen the finalized version of the plans, only noting that his brother was supposed to have been the pilot to have flown Hitler. Kristín sees Ratoff, who has been brutally tortured and strapped to a pallet, dumped out of the plane's cargo bay. Before he is dumped from the plane he warns Kristín not to cross Carr. He then begs her to release him but she does nothing. She is then confronted by Carr, who informs her that due partially to Miller's begging, she, her brother, and Júlíus will be allowed to live so long as they don't attempt to reveal what has transpired, as they have no proof of the incident. Kristín is then knocked unconscious by an injection. Kristín wakes in her apartment with no memory of what has occurred, but discovers the wound Ratoff gave her and remembers everything after receiving an anonymous caller saying "never cross Carr." She finds her brother and Júlíus alive at the hospital. She discovers from a closer examination of the document found at the farmhouse that the island of Borne was the chosen destination for Operation Napoleon. Six years later, Kristín has reached Argentina through a series of undocumented travels so as not to be found by the American government. She eventually reaches Borne Island, where she finds a crude headstone inscribed "Blondie 1947." Main characters * Kristín, the chief protagonist and a woman who is brought into the mystery when her brother contacts her about the planes and is subsequently nearly murdered by American military forces. * Elías, Kristin's brother and a member of a rescue team which stumbled onto the wreck. He is nearly killed but manages to survive. He warns Krístin of the American military activity and in the process nearly gets both of them murdered. * Steve, Kristín's ex-boyfriend and the other chief protagonist. He helps Kristín uncover the truth about the wreck but is murdered by Ratoff. * General Vytautas Carr, the commanding officer of the intelligence unit which is searching for the wreck. Using Ratoff as his right-hand man, he oversees the discovery of the wreck and subsequent attempt at preserving the secrecy of the mission. * Ratoff, General Carr's right-hand man and a sadist who tortures and kills those who cross him. Eventually he learns secrets that he knows endanger him and is murdered on the orders of Carr. * Ripley and Bateman, two Delta Force operators who are sent to kill Kristín and make her death look like a suicide. After failing, they track Kristín and Steve. * Júlíus, the leader of Elías's rescue team who finds Elías and aids Kristín and Steve. * Robert Miller, the brother of the pilot of the wrecked plane, who led the original expedition to find his brother and has since befriended General Carr. Kristín learns of Miller during the investigation and learns the true story of Operation Napoleon from him. Exteral links *[http://www.criminalelement.com/stories/2011/09/operation-napoleon-new-excerpt The prologue and first three chapters of Operation Napoleon online.] Category:Thriller Category:Adventure Category:Historical fiction